The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-08-04
EXHAUSTION OF PETROLEUM.
What Scientific Men Have to Say on 4
Subject-Tnmlstakab Signs,


Subject-Unmistakable Signs.
1t can hardly be doubted, fear, that
the supply both OF oil and gas has now
been so largely drawn upon that within
less than . score of years scarcely any
will be left which can be brought at rea-
sonable cost into the market, The boun-
daries ard extent of the oil regions have
been determined. All the sands in which
oil will ever be found in such quantities
as to be worth working are known, and
have been drilled through in various
places. 1t is scarcely possible that amy
new fields will be discovered which will
be comparable either in extent or pro-
duct5veness with those now known. So
fan, back as January, 1888, Professor
Lesley pointed ont that 10 petroleum is
now beng produced in the Devonian
rocks, either by the process akin to dis
tillation or otherwise. What has been
stored up in the past, process which
probably lastel for millions of years,
may be got oul. But when these reser-
voirs are exhausted there will be an end
of the petroleum supply. 1.-The discov-
cry of few more pools of two or three
millions of barrels each can make little
difference. Mr.. CARL, whose opinion
on the geology of the oil bearing dis
tricts may be regarded as decisive, has
come to a similar conclusion. There
are not at present, he pointed out quite
recently. ''any reasonable grounds for
expecting the discovery of new fields
which will add to the declining products
of the old, SO as to enable the output to
keep pace with the shipments or con-
sumption.
The stored petroleum in this region has
then been very nearly exhausted. In
less than generation small part of the
population of this continent alone has
used up nearly all the valuable stores OF
energy which had been accumulated dur
ing millions of years of the geologic past.
More recent inquiries confirm the con-
| clusions of Professor Lesley and Mr..
| CARL. The signs of exhaustion in the oil
producing regions can now be clearly rec
ognized. During the last four years there
has been a steady diminution IN the out
put, accompanied by an increase in the
price per barrel, which nevertheless does
not even maintain the nominal annual
value of the supply. Mr.. WHgley an
neunced in 1892 that 154, 900, 900 barrels
| of oil had already been raised up to the
beginning of that year, and expressed
the opinion that not Ipere than 96, ,000,
600 barrels remained to be raised. In
this last estimate he was undoubtedly
mistaken, for up to the beginning of 1885,
no fewer than 26l ,000,0 900 barrels had
been raised, and in the year 1885 as
many as 21, O42, o41 barrels (nearly 3,OOO,.
! 600 fewer than 1884 were obtained. But
although the estimate in 1882 of the
quantity of oil still remaining fell far short
of the truth. and though we may admit
Ss possible that even now much more oil
remains to be put out than the most ex.
perienced geologists suppose, the signs Of
approaching exhaustion are yearly be-
coming more unmistakable.
The expense of bringing the oil to the
surface grows greater year by year, and
threatens soon TO become so great thai
the profit of working the oil stores vii
be evanescent. So soon as that state Of
things is approached, we may be SURE
that the oil men s occupation in Pennsyl
vania and western New York will b,
gone. 1t has been stated that the Japan
ese, unwilling to let the least fraction o.
the earths interior stores be lost, have
been known to excavate vertical shat
TO depth of SEQ feet in order to raise
few gallons of oil per day. But in Amer
lea, when the oil mines are SO near ex
haustion as this, they will be abandoned
nay, they will be abandoned long befor,
they approach such condition. Will
the failure of the oil supply, all the col
lateral branches of industry associated
with it viii fall ltoo.-Knowledge.